Exploration of Personal Data Spaces for commons

The Amsterdam Commons, Post Platforms Foundation, Schluss, and the Centre of Excellence for Data Sharing and Cloud are collaboratively exploring personal data spaces to establish data sovereignty for commons. Commons refer to a collective of people who share and manage resources according to mutually agreed-upon rules, characterized by self-organization, local participation, non-hierarchical structures, and inclusivity. Examples in Amsterdam include shared housing, community-managed parks, and energy and mobility collectives.

This exploration addresses critical issues such as the centralization of data and power by bureaucracies and large platforms, with the goal of enhancing community involvement and data autonomy. By integrating Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and data spaces into what is termed Personal Data Spaces or Web3 Data Spaces, the project aspires to create secure and empowered communities through improved identification processes and the secure storage and sharing of data. Additionally, participative protocols like e-voting or reputation management systems can be established. As these concepts and services are explored, discussions on their broader implications—such as the ethics of reputation management and the social desirability of persistent IDs—are sparked.

This initiative is merely the starting point of a continuous journey to explore and refine this concept. A prototype, expected soon from the Post Platforms Foundation, will demonstrate the initial findings. Subsequent investigations will focus on bridging the insights gained from practical implementations and experimentation with long-term research agendas, emphasizing ethical, legal, and social implications (ELBSI). This initiative promises to contribute to the ongoing development of a more autonomous and inclusive digital infrastructure.

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